"A snow day? Today?" Jessica asked as she tried to wake up from her deep sleep.

"Yes," Aaron replied, sounding just as tired. "And I wouldn't call, but I need to stop into the office today and pick up some more files to review. Would you mind coming over and watching him for a few hours? I have no idea how long it will take me to get into the office, but I only need to be there for about half an hour."

"Sure, that's no problem," she replied, yawning widely. "All right, give me an hour and I'll be there."

"Thank you." He sounded so relieved, and she smiled gently as she slipped out of bed and padded over to her closet, pulling out a pair of khaki pants, a long sleeved shirt, and a warm sweater.

"You are most welcome," she said before hanging up and going to her dresser, pulling out fresh underclothes. Hurriedly, she dressed and then took off for Aaron's apartment. Thankfully, there was a Starbucks along the way, and she ordered her usual, but with an added shot of espresso, knowing she would need it after a late night writing, and then an early morning wake up. Blinking blearily, she sipped at the brew before setting it in the cup holder.

The roads were not the best, and so it took a little longer to get to Aaron's then she had planned on. He was in his coat already, smiling at her as she entered. "Jack's still asleep," he said before kissing her cheek softly.

"All right, that just gives me more time to write." She hugged him tightly before shooing him out the door. "Bring lunch home with you, and I'll just hang out here for the entire day. You'll probably need me to corral Jack in the afternoon, so that you can finish your files."

He nodded appreciatively, and she gently closed the door and locked it. Almost on autopilot, she made her way to the living room and set up her laptop, plugging it in before plopping onto the sofa and booting it up.

She had left off in the middle of the fourth task, and the building tension made it hard for her to write in large swathes. Of course, she knew that everything would end happily, but there was still the feel, in the moment, of impending doom.

"Aunt Jessica? Where's Daddy?" Jack asked sleepily as he stumbled into the living room, cuddling up close to her.

"He had to go into work for a few hours. You have a snow day today, you can go back to sleep."

He shook his head and let his head thump against her chest. "No. I want to spend time with you. Have you heard anything about Ms. Jareau?"

She stiffened slightly, not knowing what was going on with the rest of the team. "I'm not sure. Should I have heard anything?"

He shrugged a little, and she wondered if something had happened and she hadn't been told. "Daddy mentioned that he hadn't heard from her in a few days. Chief Cruz told him that everything was okay, she was just working through some things, but he didn't sound very convincing over the phone. Daddy seemed to buy it, though."

"Maybe because he was telling the truth."

"Maybe." Jack sounded skeptical of her words and she slung her arm around him, leaning down to kiss his head. "Could we play a game?"

"Sure. What do you want to play?"

He shrugged again. "Scrabble?" Jack asked, almost sounding like he was afraid she would turn him down flat. Jessica made certain to smile widely at him as she nodded and he scrambled off the sofa and over to the bookcase, pulling out the box and setting it up on the coffee table.

Jessica saved her document and powered down the computer, setting it aside before sitting on the floor, arranging her tiles. "The person with the highest letter value goes first," she said, even though she didn't have anything larger than four points.

Her nephew gave her a toothy grin as he triumphantly held up his tile. "I have the zed! Yes!"

"Zed? Where did you pick that up from?" she tenderly teased.

"We have a new girl, she transferred from New Brunswick. She was spelling something the other day and used it, and some of the kids made fun of her. So, I started to do it, too. It's not nice to pick on people, just because they do things a little differently."

"You're right, it's not. I'm glad that you decided to do the right thing and stick up for her. Plus, when you say it like that, it makes you sound very educated." She reached out and tweaked his nose before beginning to arrange her tiles in the best possible configuration. "I'm so glad that you're turning out to be so much like your father. It's part of why I love you so much."

"I love you, too, Aunt Jessica. I wish you could stay with us all the time."

She sighed deeply and nodded a little. "There are times I wish that, too, buddy. But there are some things that just can't be. Okay?" He nodded and they set about playing, Jessica finding her mind a thousand miles away, thinking about Aaron and a future that could never be.